Nicaragua Network

The Nicaragua Network supports Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega’s socialist regime and was a member of the 2004 steering committee of the radical-left anti-war ANSWER Coalition. ^{4  5} The network has also supported pro-Palestinian protest movements. ⁶

Background

The Nicaragua Network was founded in 1979, in support of the Marxist Sandinista movement which successfully revolted against the pro-Western Somoza family that previously ruled Nicaragua. By the 1990s, the Nicaragua Network led numerous international campaigns involving protests against the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) and other demonstrations for expanded labor rights, some of which had little to do with Nicaragua. Due to the expanding scope of activities, members formed the Alliance for Global Justice (AFGJ) in 1998 as an umbrella organization to fund its disparate projects. As of 2026, the Nicaragua Network operates as a fiscally sponsored project of AFGJ. ^{7  1}

Activities

In its earliest days, the Nicaragua Network supported the Marxist Sandinista regime in Nicaragua by sponsoring Sandinista Front speaking tours around the United States throughout the 1980s. The network opposed the Reagan administration’s Central American foreign policy and what left-of-center activists considered “U.S. aggression” against Nicaragua. ² As of 2026, the Nicaragua Network was continuing to support Nicaraguan leader Daniel Ortega and his socialist regime. ⁴

The Nicaragua Network has opposed U.S. sanctions against Nicaragua. ³ The network has also organized international delegations to express support for the Nicaraguan regime against what it considers U.S. intervention in Nicaraguan politics. ^{8  9}

In 2014, Nicaragua Network National co-coordinator Charles Kaufman expressed the network’s support for the right of the Nicaraguan people to build a canal, while also encouraging increased consideration of the environmental impacts of building the canal. ¹⁰

The Nicaragua Network was a member of the 2004 steering committee of the left-wing anti-war ANSWER Coalition. ⁵ The network also historically shared an address with the ANSWER Coalition and the Mexico Solidarity Network (MSN). ¹¹ In 2002, the Nicaragua Network endorsed a pro-Palestinian protest in New York City organized by ANSWER and its affiliated organizations. ⁶

Alliance for Global Justice (AFGJ)

The Alliance for Global Justice is an umbrella group that serves as a fiscal sponsor to several left-wing and radical-left initiatives, including the Nicaragua Network, Movement for Black Lives Fund, Refuse Fascism, United Students Against Sweatshops, and Stop Mass Incarceration. ¹²

AFGJ arose from the Nicaragua Network and describes itself as “anti-capitalist,” opposed to the principles of liberal democracy and individual rights, and favoring a “multi-polar” world order with empowered rivals to American international primacy. ^{13  14}

AFGJ provides “fiscal sponsorship” to groups advocating numerous foreign and domestic far-left causes, including eliminating the State of Israel, supporting and defending convicted violent left-wing extremists, and advancing various labor union projects. ^{15  12} AFGJ has been criticized for close alignment with authoritarian left-wing regimes in Latin America, including the deposed Venezuelan socialist regime of Nicolas Maduro, the Nicaraguan Sandinista socialist regime of Daniel Ortega, and the Cuban communist regime. ¹³

Leadership

Charles Kaufman was a co-founder of the Alliance for Global Justice and was the national co-coordinator of the Nicaragua Network. ¹⁶ He first joined the Nicaragua Network in 1987 following a career in advertising and business. Kaufman has led several socialist activist delegations to Nicaragua and other Latin American and Caribbean countries, including Venezuela, Haiti, and Honduras. He was a founder of the ANSWER Coalition, a left-of-center anti-war activist group. He was also a founding board member of the Honduras Solidarity Network, another AFGJ project. Kaufman received a bachelor’s degree in Government and Politics from George Mason University. He died in 2021. ¹⁷

Katherine Hoyt is the former co-director of the Nicaragua Network, a position she held from 1991 to 2016. She previously worked as a visiting assistant professor of political science at Whitman College and as director of the Michigan Interfaith Committee on Central American Human Rights (MICAH). She also spent time as a social worker, healthcare supervisor, and Red Cross Women Volunteer in Nicaragua. After retiring from the Nicaragua Network in 2016, she joined the AFGJ board of directors. Hoyt received a bachelor’s degree in political science from Vassar College, her master’s in political science from Wayne State University, and her Ph.D. in political science from Rutgers University. ^{18  19}

Financials

In 2024, the Nicaragua Network’s parent group and fiscal sponsor, the Alliance for Global Justice, reported $5,199,189 in total revenue, $8,742,473 in total expenses, and $5,515,271 in total assets. ²⁰

While most of AFGJ’s federal tax returns indicate total revenues between $5 and $10 million, in 2021, the group reported $56,484,154 in total revenue, $54,150,822 in total expenses, and $6,222,083 in total assets. That year, AFGJ issued $30,666,918 in grants to its then-fiscally sponsored project the Movement for Black Lives (MBL). ²¹